Khalil al-Wazir

Khalil al-Wazir (10 October 1935-16 April 1988) was a leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who was known as a top aide of Yasser Arafat. He was assassinated in Tunisia on 16 April 1988 by Israel.

Biography
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir was born in Ramla in British Palestine on 10 October 1935. He became a refugee during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 when the Israeli army evicted his family from their homes, and al-Wazir later became a member of the Palestinian resistance movement. Khalil befriended Yasser Arafat and became a leader of Fatah, the main party of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). al-Wazir supplied PLO forces in Black September as they fought against Jordan and Israel, and he also planned many attacks inside Israel against military and civilian targets. In 1982 he set up defenses in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, where the PLO was headquartered. He was exiled when Israel invaded Lebanon later that year and he spent two years in Jordan before moving to Tunisia. From there, he began to organize youth movements against Israeli rule of the Palestinian territories and they became the backbone of the Palestinian forces during the First Intifada.

Death
However, al-Wazir did not live to command the intifada. In April 1988 a team of Israeli commandos was ferried to Tunisia by boat and were aided by Mossad agents already ashore. They proceeded to disguise themselves as kidnapped Lebanese fishermen and gained access to the PLO compound. He was shot three times at point-blank range in front of his wife and son, and he was killed.